


Of Telmarine Descent

by LunaStorm



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: AU-ish but not too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 08:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2615138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaStorm/pseuds/LunaStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Edmund makes a very unexpected aquaintance in an ordinary British Library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Telmarine Descent

“Face it, Pev. You _liiiike_ her!”

Edmund  Pevensie,  a  quiet,  handsome  young  man  wearing  a  pristine  college uniform,  shot  an  annoyed  look  at  his  official  best  friend,  Aidan Winkler,  a chipper,  scruffy-looking  blond  wearing  the  same  outfit,  albeit  with  much  less grace and elegance.

A lot of people wondered how serious, responsible Edmund could be friends, let alone best friends, with easy-going, prankster Aidan.

Aidan  boasted  that  he  was  simply  irresistible,  even  to  serious  stuck-ups  like ‘Pev’.

Edmund  just  smiled.  He  could  hardly  confess  that  Aidan  reminded  him  of  a faun he used to play chess with, now could he?

At the moment, however, Edmund was having some difficulties remembering why he suffered the annoying twerp’s company.

It was true that he’d been fixated on the girl for the past few days. He came to the Library much more often than warranted by his ‘studies’ and watched her as inconspicuously as he was able, peering through the old gothic shelves.   
There  was  no  denying  his  interest;  but  that  didn’t  mean  he  fancied  her!  He just… he was curious.  

He couldn’t pinpoint what made her different from all the other girls who came here day after day to study. He wanted to decipher the mystery she was, that was all.

His other friends just laughed and teased him: they too all had a certain young lady  –  or  more  than  one  in  some  cases  –  in  mind  when  they  came  to  the Library to try and watch them – err... that is, to _study_. 

Edmund knew his wasn’t a crush. Seriously, he wasn’t an immature teenager, no  matter  what  his  body  looked  like,  no  matter  how  he  was  treated  here  in England.  He remembered his first times being fascinated by a girl, particularly a Princess Tara of Terebinthia that still made him blush in remembrance, even though absolutely nothing had come of it… He knew this was different.

Besides, he wasn’t controlled by his hormones, _thankyouverymuch_ , and while he could freely admit the lady in question was elegant and graceful, he couldn’t in all honesty define her beautiful. He still remembered his royal sister, Queen   
Susan, at the height of her beauty during the Golden Age of Narnia – he was hard  pressed  in  finding  a  girl  who  could  bear  comparison.  And  it  was  simply ridiculous to him the mention of ‘love’ when speaking of someone he had only caught a glimpse of in a library, and a few times on campus.  

No, he could only laugh at his peers’ silliness in thinking him infatuated. But he was honest enough with himself to know he was… intrigued.  

In  some  indefinable  way,  she  reminded  him  of  days  past,  of  better  days,  of days he couldn’t help but long for. She reminded him of Home.

But naturally, only Peter would understand him if he tried to explain, and Peter wasn’t here right now, and so he had no help in finding the elusive answers he desired. All he could do was come back to watch her everyday, in the hope of   
solving her mystery.

Of course, Aidan was being a fantastic nuisance about it. Edmund wondered if the other boy was jealous or something of the sort. Really, was it too much to ask,  not  to  be  teased  mercilessly  for  something  that  didn’t  even  have  any   
ground?

It hadn’t helped that Edmund had bristled at a fairly rude comment Aidan had made on the young lady’s appearance.    
It  had  offended  Edmund’s  sense  of  courteousness  and  what  he  considered basic  civility.  So  she  wasn’t  as  beautiful  as,  say,  his  sisters.  That  didn’t  give them the right to say it out loud! She was graceful and genteel, and that was enough in his mind to earn her the respect he’d been taught to accord to any lady.

But  of  course,  his  friend  didn’t  hold  himself  to  the  standards  of  a  Narnian Knight  and  he  had  misconstrued  Edmund’s  good  manners  for  romantic interest.

“Pev,  honestly!  No  one  can  obsess  on  a  girl  like  you’re  doing  and  seriously claim  they’re  not  interested!”  Aidan’s  sing-song  voice  sounded  taunting  and thoroughly amused.  

Edmund fought down a scowl. Although not romantic in nature, there was no denying that he did feel an interest in the girl.

“Just go and introduce yourself already!” Laughing eyes twinkled at him from his soon-to-be-former best friend’s face. Why, oh, why did he hang out with the nuisance, again?

“I will do no such thing, Mr. Winkler,” he said in a calm and regal manner. “It would be both presumptuous and unseemly and I’ll thank you not to suggest it again."

Really, what was the prat thinking! One does not approach a lady, especially a maid,  out  of  the  blue  with  no  common  acquaintances  to  mediate  the encounter,  no  previous  claim  to  any  relationship  and  no  better  reason  than _curiosity_. It would be a rude imposition indeed, to inconvenience her like that – and for what? To satisfy his own nosiness?

At least he was fairly confident that Aidan would subside now, for a while at least.  He  always  seemed  to,  when  Edmund  resorted  to  a  formal  style  of address. Perhaps it was the way a hint of King Edmund would shine through in   
such occasions – which both Peter and he had learned to keep rare, precisely for this reason.

As he expected, the blond glanced away and pointedly changed the topic, and breathing a sigh of relief Edmund forced himself to go back to ‘normal British teenager’ once more.   

He couldn’t help glancing back to the girl one last time, though. As blundering as it was, Aidan’s advice wasn’t completely without merit. Maybe he could find someone who would be able to introduce her to him? It would probably not be easy, but not impossible either…

But as it were, his curiosity was soon to be satisfied without much effort on his part.

The very next day, having for once actually needed to consult a book, he was walking  briskly  towards  the  circulation  desk  of  the  Library  when  rounding  a solid shelf, he collided unexpectedly with the very girl he’d been thinking of so   
much, coming in the opposite direction.

He  startled  rather  badly  at  the  sudden  tete-à-tete,  caught  completely  off guard, and barely managed to react in time to steady her from a fall. 

He could hardly believe it. Here was the girl he had been so fascinated with of late, suddenly in front of him…  

She looked almost as taken aback as he felt and he had the unexpected feeling that she recognized him too, for she was staring, scrutinizing him with an odd intensity that had Edmund reeling, absolutely incapable of taking advantage of the  sudden  circumstance,  or,  indeed,  of  uttering  the  few  sentences  of apology/introduction politeness required.  

He was almost starting to become self-conscious, and only his long experience as a diplomat allowed him to avoid squirming unbecomingly.

Then…

Then she shocked him to his very core.

For  this  rather  ordinary,  red-headed  girl,  with  a  very  British,  cotton  uniform and wool high stockings and books for literature class in her arms, in this very British library…

…dipped into a graceful curtsey – not the just-hinted one that Susan informed them was the ‘trend’ after the war, but a full, text-book one, that had Edmund blinking his eyes at the passing impression of long, flowing gowns…

…and gently said: “The Lion’s blessing upon you, your Majesty.”

Edmund gasped, eyes wide in utter disbelief. “Wh-What? How…? I don’t… Why would you… How?!”

He stammered and faltered, even as he unconsciously straightened his pose, squaring  his  shoulder  and  sketching  a  courtly  bow,  unable  to  get  over  his incredulity in front of this unexplainable encounter.

Her smile was sad, and pained, and joyful all in one.  

“Have you really never wondered, your Majesty, what became of the Telmarins who followed the Kings and Queens of Old through Aslan’s Door?”

Then she left, leaving in her wake a stunned Edmund, only coherent enough to gape.


End file.
